Narrative Structure and Representation in 3 Slasher Openings

Considering what to expect in the films e.g Sex age textuality Architype and include your own interpritation. Always back it up with specific detail from what you can see from the txt and use semiotics to denote and connote and explain and say why these signifiers were used and why they were chosen to be shown.
E.g A Red rose connotes romance
look at the characters clothing and how they speak
E.g Adult figures of authority and showing their power to inferior characters such as children

The Three films that I looked at were The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper 1974), A Nightmare on Elm Street (Samuel Bayer 2010) and Halloween (John Carpenter 1978)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)


Opening Shot of mangled body 

The opeing shot is a close up of a mangled up face, then the camera slowly zoom's out of it and reveales a shot of a grave yard with a dusty american background also theis scene has diegetic audio of a radio which is telling the audience of what crime happened to make this startling scene apear.



Showing or giving some info in the titles of what is going to happen

The Titles of the the film are a yellow colour on a black background also they are a san serif font which indicates the film will be very dramtic and sort of scary,The titles go upwards off the screen so that more come up however this can give off a sence of mystery of where its leading

 

Scream Queen of this film

The typical screem queen is not shown in this film due to the female character is a brown haired interlectual character who seems to have alot of common sense also she is not a very busty woman therefore she doesnt have the atributes of a typical screem queen

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010)

Freddie Krueger  (The Killer)

The Opening shot of the film is a medium shot which shows the killer Freddie in shot which is unusual for a slasher film to just reveal the killer straight from the opening shot as it removes all of the narrative enigma. It also gives the audience a little information on who and what the killer looks like and what weapon he uses to kill his victims with, These being the bladed hands shown in the picture above.

This shot is a long shot of the bed of which the final girl is in of which shows that the focus is on her and that the killing is taking place in her dream. The lighting has been focused on the bed and purely the girl in the bed to add more effect and emphasis on her which is key to capture the audiences attention

Long Establishing shot of scream queen

This shot shows the scream queen locked or tied up in a room of where she is about to die, this shot is in her dreams and all the focus of this is on the girl sat in the chair, you can tell this because of the way the light is reflecting on her and making her look in the middle of the light. This shows the audience that there is only one character on screen that is visible at this moment of the film.

Halloween (John Carpenter, 1987)

The opening shot of the film Halloween is an extreme long shot of the house of which the final girl or in this case the sister of the killer is in, the shot has a title before it with halloween the date on it and then we follow the camera in as a POV shot towards the house

The Killer in this film is linked with the victim, this is the archytype where by the boy you see here is the younger brother of the the victim which is the girl who he kills in the opening sequence. The girl he kills would count as the screem queen due to her actions leading up to the killing.

This shot shows the victims commiting a sin which would be seen as bad by god and that is why they are being killed due to what follows by them progressing upstairs and then having sexual intercoaurse upstairs and that would be a signifier as to why they were killed

Idents and Titles Analysis

Slasher (2001)
Low budget indie $165K,no idents and no titles
Set like a game show and no titles ran throughout the film even after the main plot had begun

Urban Legend (Jamie Blanks 1998)
Budget $14m and made $38m in the US and $1.1m in UK
Has a Trimark Ident and Pheonix ident also has non diegetic music over the titles opening stops after 2:31s and more titles start again.

Scary Movie (Wayanes 2000)
$19m budget for this film in US and made $157m
Dimention Films is an only ident, after the opening scene there was the title of scary movie

Mad House (William Butler 2004)
Budget
Opening shot is wall with blood and no credits or titles and opens with a window screen, titles apear on a black background with white writing. Lions Gate ident.

Black Christmas (Bob Clarke 1974)
Budget
Serif font used quite often in the opening titles and

Cry Wolf (Jeff Waldow 2005)
Budget
An ident for rouge pictures and then dissapears and then a hypnotic pictures ident appears behind it. Then the opening title show the title and is in a sort of typewriter style and has a serif font also has decayed lettering on the title.

Donkey Punch ( Ollie Blackburn 2008)
Warp Films ident and film 4 ident appears with titles following with a serif font also then

Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma 1980)
Has a metro goldwyn mayer ident then a Samuel Z Arkoff ident follows that with roughly 6 titles on this.

All the Boys love Mandy Lane (Levine 2006)
only one ident the colours are grey and black and there is very little audio and has the ident occupant Films ident. also this has a very strong serif font signifing the knife, 4 titles are in the opening sequence

April Fools Day (Fred Walten 1986)
ident of paramount pictures and then a hotel films production, titles end at 5 mins in and has 13 titles 21 seconds in and the characters are filming one another.


Babysitter Wanted (Jonas Barnes and Michael Manaserri, 2008)
bigscreen ident and the inependant film company ident, music is similar between idents, white sans serif font.

5ive Girls (Warren Sonoda 2006)
alliance atlantis ident and has alot of annimation then the second ident is archetype films and the titles appear after 4 mins in and has a rock music audio. Use of blood in opening titles. and graphic behind the titles. vioce over of a man reading a prayer.

My Idents Vodcast

We had to look at 4 films each and i paired up with Dom and we had looked at the idents included in these Films in this Vodcast. 

My Ident

This is my ident:
The technology i used to create this was mainly final cut pro and then garageband to produce the sound also i used flash to create the effects of which the sloth spins around

Slasher Franchise Vodcast

This is our slasher franchise vodcast:
In this vodcast you will see and find out about some of the various different slasher franchises the genre has to offer.

My Ident Idea

As the theme of the films we are looking at is the slasher genre i have decided to use a serif font or a black background and red writing to show titles for example like these examples that i have found. This would work well due to the red colour representing a blood effect and the black background meaning a sence of mystery and disillution. My idea for an ident company name is Ginger Sloth films.

Also for my idea i would like to make it an animated sloth which can move around so that it shows more skill and a good use of ict behind it also, I would like it to have a nature sound over the top of the ident so it really comes out and shows that it has some relevance to the sloth and it isnt just some random music behind it 

The Final Girl Concept




The Final Girl Concept

Laurie Strode (Final girl) Stereotypical Final Girl
 with school books (Halloween, 1987)

The final girl concept was founded by Carol J Clover who had the idea of someone who had had a past history with a certain killer in the slasher films for example Halloween and Psycho. How Laurie Strode defines the final girl architype. The signifiers that show her to be the final girl are the facts that she is carrying academic books an she then forgets her biology book which her friends laugh at her but she shows great concern over this to mean that she is quite interlectual. Also she is very covered up in what she is wearing and doesnt show any fleash and not very 'sexy' looking. Brown hair, flat chested and not very good sence of footwear, this also surggests

Laurie Strode playing the final girl in the slasher film (Halloween, 1987)

 that she is not a very self confident person. She is also a responsible character unlike the other 'scream queens'.

Scream (Wes Craven, 1986)
As like Laurie Strode Sidney Presscot is a young brunette girl who is doing her homework and has a sence of old fashioned wear to do with her clothing and hair style. She is also a very well spoken girl and is trusted and sensible due to her father leaving her home for the weekend. Th final girl would normally be a virgin and wouldnt end up being a virgin. Billy Loumis states in the fgilm that he wouldnt dream of breaking her underwear rule meaning her virginity.

Film Festival

On friday the 9th of November our media class went on a school trip to the ASFF which is a film festival held in the centre of york, we got to the main stage of where the main speakers were who were Barry Ryan and Danny Cohen from Warp Films. They were at the Film Festival due to it being the 10th anniversary of Warp Films.

We encountered masterclasses from both gentlemen one from Barry Ryan about his expreinces in the Warp film industries and the times and memories that he has had working at Warp. He gave us a presentation of how many hours and time gets put into each and every film that he has had a part in making which was:
30 days preparation
30 days shooting
150 days post
210 days
10 hours a day
2100 week
18 times 2100 is 37500 hours of making films
This was a great eyeopener to the world of media and production of how things work in a prodcing company.

The other masterclass we encountered was from Danny Cohen this of which was a more formal interview which took place on centre stage. During this masterclass we viewed many clips fropm some of his previous films working with Shane Meadows. His Masterclass was mainly focused on cinematography and the aspects of it, Also they key thing that Danny said was that it was easy when you know what you were doing with is and you can turn something hugely complicated into sometihng incredibaly easy. Danny produced many differant films such as The Kings Speech and This is England

Film Openings: Summary of Conventions

The key conventions in a film or drama are these listed below and are all needed for the film to be a sucsessful and good peice of footage
Idents
These are what appear before and after the film has started and finished these are what other broadcasting company's will advertise their buisness and authority of coverage of the film. Examples of these are LionsGate and Paramount also a more common one would be Warner Brothers
Audio
This is the sound in the film, without the sound in the film you wouldnt be able to create any emotion or feeling to the film. There is also what you call an audio bridge which links the opening idents and credits to the film which can be digetic or non digetic. This is key in a film due to it building up any feelings and tension when certain things happen on the screen as it adds more effect
Language
What type of language and text is used in the film determinds where the film is set and played in also the language can play a key part of what the idea of social area the film is shot in. Most common leanguage types are american and english however in modern times the films which are made by companys which speak english now are making films transcripts for different languages for example spanish and french
Mise-en-scene
The mise-en-scene is used to set the scene almost where by it is what the reader takes in when the shot is taken as in objects and dress codes and tones of voice. This is prossibaly the key convention when film makers are trying to signify where the film is being staged without saying it in the actual film and it then gives the audience an idea of the social class of the character.

Microdrama: Finished Film and Reflections

The Microdrama we shot was a horror type genre and here is our finished version of the microdrama "Lads on Tour"

Microdrama: Editing

When editing the Microdrama we used Final Cut Pro which helped us greatly in touching up and linking the shots together to create one whole film rather than short snippets of film which would have made no sense at all to the viewing audience. We edited the film so that the slasher/killer character was portrayed via narrative enigma where by we didn't show himself to the camera until the end of the film.

For the editing we split our filming group in two and both had turns at editing the film this was so that we could so which was a better edit and so that we could cover all angles of which the film could be interpreted, we added transitions and effects which enhanced the scariness and tension in the film.

Things i would change if we were to do it again would be more blood and gore when the actual killing takes place and more screaming for help when the 'lads' are trapped by the killer. Also i would probably add more lighting effect to the night time scenes.

Microdrama The Shoot

The Microdrama was shot at my house because we thought that it had the best effects with the natural lighting and the specific rooms. The filming took place on the 2nd of November. We all gathered to shoot the microdrama on what was a wet and rainy day so it kind of ruined part of the shooting.

We came across many problems during the shooting of the microdrama such as the rain and the wind, however with the help of George's microphone and dead cat we could get enough of the dialogue as we possibly could. The Traffic in the opening scene also became a problem due to the inconsistant amount of filming time we had between red and green lights at the traffic lights. Some of the lighting in the house wasnt as light as we had hoped it had been so we had to improvise and use a phone torch to make it lighter and to capture those vital expressions. But the worst problem we had was the interuptions by various members of the group making noises and putting of the acting crew so we had to shoot longer than we should have in the end.

Shooting this microdrama helped us use vital and key shots and angles by doing this we gained more experience of what we need to do for the coarse and what actual filming and shootign of shots looks and feels like. Things i would have done differantly to improve the prefered reading of the text would be to add in more rapid shots to create a scence of tension and bulid up to a big scare

Microdrama Planning

For the planning of the microdrama the class eached pitched an idea about what genre or type of film they would like to shoot, the class was split up into two groups of which were boys vs girls groups, as a group we each voted for a type of genre of which we would like to shoot and the genre we decided on was horror/slasher. We started of by drawing up a story board and then developing our ideas into a story and a then there was an equilibrium to the film, we planned out where were going to shoot the fil and which characters were who and how things in the film were going to happen for example with the various differant shot types and angles of the camera needed to film the peice.

Key Narrative Theories

There are 4 key theories when narrative is used in media these are that of Propp, Todarov, Levi-Strauss and Barthes'

Propp (Character Types)
The Hero – a character that seeks something
The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest
The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties
The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims
The Helper – who aids the hero
The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots
Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort
 
Todarov (model of narrative structure)
The theory is simply, The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium (everything is as it should be) Then It then suffers some disruption (disequilibrium) Resulting in a New equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

A state of equilibrium
A disruption of that order by an event
A recognition that the disorder has occurred
An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
A return or restoration of a New equilibrium

Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss noticed an important feature of these 'binary opposites' that one side of the binary pair is always seen by a particular society or culture as more valued over the other.

Barthes'
Barthes argued that the reader produced new meanings when reading a text, making use of previous experiences. Therefore different people read different things from a text. Texts may be open and have many meanings/interpretations or texts could be closed and have only one meaning.

Semiotics Rap

Yo yo yo,denotations to deneotes which are unlike connotations or cannotes, signifier signifier signifier means alot when symbols is all you got. On a mission to find some binary opposition with some nuclear fission in the memory to embed it with some polysemy, however it was rather heavy. People ruin it and by adding narrative enigma which causes alot of mystery just like polysemy.

Semiotics: The Concepts & Key Tems

Signifier and Signified:
Something that has a symbolic meaning and what we interprit e.g. a Coffin or a Rose at Funerals
Denotations/Denotes
The discription of a specific text e.g. analysing a specific font or word
Binary Opposition
Two opposties combined or combining together
Polysemy
where somthing has many possible meanings
Anchors/Anchorage
when the signifier has been made clear
Commutation Test
Identifify or select a signifier and discribe wether it would impact the text e.g. Pink Speedo's or a jump suit
Prefered Reading
How it is hoped that you will interprit the text and respond to it.
Negotiated  Reading
where you understand the meaning of it up to a certain point
Oppositional Reading
Understand the knowledge and intentions through lack of knowledge and follow bits not all of it
Narrative Enigma
Where you keep some infromation away from the audience about one of the characters in a sence of mystery.
Intertextuality
the meaning of one text is linked to an existing text.

Vodcast of Conventions

In groups of 4 we had create a vodcast of the different conventions seen in each others film openings which we studied as a previous blog post. Here is our Vodcast


In this vodcast we highlight the conventions of Idents, Mis-en-Scene, Audio and Editing throughout the 8 films.

OpeningEG4 Bullet Boy Film



Cover of the DVD

The Film which i have chosen to Analise is called
BulletBoy
(Saul Dibb, 2004)

Box Office
Opening Weekend: £140K (UK) (10 April 2005) (75 Screens)
Gross: £298K (UK) (17 April 2005)
Company Credits
Production Co: BBC Films, UK Film Council and Shine.

The Film is about how two brothers living in a harsh poverty stricken area of London become involved in a vicious cycle of violence after an incident on the street. The Film Lasts of 89mins and is rated a 15. The opening of the film which was what i analysed lasted for aproximately 2:34 mins where by the end of the opening sequence ends with what looks like the main character leaving some form of prison. Here is the trailer.



Company Ident

This is the only company ident at the start of the film indicating that the film is a low budget film which didnt have much funding to make it or produce it. However other film production companys also put money in to fund it so they could have rights to screen the film, such as BBC Films and Shine.

Opening Shot



 The First shot of the film is a close up of a scratched window with a blurred back to it, this gives an impression of lack of respect or crime or just lack of care. It sets the scene as a sort of rural area or infeltrated by crime and a defaced society.



first character shot

This shot is a medium lomng shot of what seems to be a characted lying in a prison cell this shows that the character inset has commited a crime, Also the character has his hand on his head indicating that he is fed up or not happy about somthing that has happened. Also the effect on the camera in this shot has been blurred at the edges so that the audience can focus on what is in the main frame.



This next shot is a two shot medium over the shoulder shot where by it looks like the prisoner is being let out of his cell on release or somthing. This shot shows the expression and emotion on the characters face on being let out of his cell. Also the point of which the inmate is let out the emotion changes. 

This shot is a multi-shot where by more than one character is involved in the frame at any one time.This shot is more of a medium shot. this shows the character's body language and image as they speak or communicate with one another.